December 04, 2007

'07 Bonnie & Clyde Take Over Philly Media, Facebook

Oh, yes, now the rest of the media has picked up on the Bonnie & Clyde of ID fraud and there apparently was a press conference where they laid out a bunch of fake IDs.

It's on the front page of Philly.com again today, too, with many more hilarious photos, including one after the jump.

Continue reading "'07 Bonnie & Clyde Take Over Philly Media, Facebook"

Posted by D-Mac at 09:29 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

November 29, 2007

N.J. Bans Sex Offenders From Social Networking Sites

New Jersey's parole board yesterday voted unanimously to bar those convicted of sex crimes from using the Internet to network. That this will do very little to help public safety means nothing; N.J. could pass a law requiring registered sex offenders to chop off their own hands and the majority of the public would probably cheer.

There are some questions, of course; where does the law stop? It's targetd at Facebook and Myspace, of course, but what about YouTube, which has commenting and community? Are registered sex offenders allowed to comment here? Are the New Jersey police going to ask me for the server logs so they can comb through for sex offenders? (Okay: No, but you see where I'm going with this.)

Apparently, the rule is you can't post a profile. And sex offenders can still use email. Hey, a feel-good solution that does nothing to actually prevent underage sex solicitation online!

But I think my hypothetical pales in comparison to that of a poster on the always incredible Courier-Post forums.

This is like saying you accosted a Orange once; now you're forbidden from buying oranges. So are you going to have a cop at every venue that may sell oranges?

Please, won't someone think of the oranges?

N.J. bans sex offenders from networking sites [Courier-Post]
N.J. to sex parolees: Keep off MySpace [The Star-Ledger]

Posted by D-Mac at 08:45 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

August 14, 2006

Outsourced Social Networking: It's Just Like Regular Social Networking!

Last year, two New Jersey teenagers were complaining about how overpriced the school yearbook was. Rather than forgetting it 25 minutes later, these young go-getters decided to boost their college resumes and create their own social network! Ta da!

Catherine and Simon Cook, of Stillman, N.J., created myYearbook.com. Well, they didn't "create" it so much as have their older brother invest a cool 250k and hire programmers in India to make the Myspace- and Facebook-like site. (But, actually, that's even more impressive. No programming work to do themselves!)

So what makes this different from any other social networking site? The Inquirer sat in on a meeting of the site's employees, where they discussed ideas, including a "social safety" card that will certify that a student is enrolled in a certain school. (One possible slogan for such a card is: "Get independence and smell great!" Naturally.)

Body odor aside, if you haven't heard of myYearbook, you should check it out. (Especially if you like social networking site 9/11 memorials.) I mean, look at the members featured on the front page:

Three blurry photos of girls trying to look cute, and a profile created for a a video game character. Fits right in!

myYearbook
The next page in yearbooks [Inky]

Posted by D-Mac at 11:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)